Here are a few things I’ve experienced while running this party for the last month and a half:

20. My first ideas sucked; some of them sucked hard. (One of my first ideas before thinglistr was an app that would let people print from anywhere using super cheap laser printers. Not quite Facebook for dogs, but yeah, not exciting.)

19. Sleep *is* really difficult to come by.

18. I think about how to make thinglistr better *all* of the time. I’m not joking; thinglistr is on my mind 24/7, and I often think about it in my sleep. I’ve had nights where I *couldn’t* sleep because I was too busy brainstorming solutions to certain things.

17. My social life has been shot to hell. I almost never go out anymore. (This is fine with me; I spent way too much time in previous years partying and stuff, so I’m not missing much.)

16. On the Internet, *everyone* is an entrepreneur-in-residence and expert on scaling on startups. Separating the wheat from the chaff is a full-time job.

15. You’ll be surprised by who follows who on Twitter. Twitter is weird.

14. I actually discovered that I like Twitter more than Facebook. It’s more…human, in a way. You couldn’t *pay* me to say this not just a few months ago.

13. Pitching is exactly like online dating right down to the profile. (You need to say the right things, have the right look, have the right goals, etc.)

12. Unlike dating, the dating coaches (i.e. people that ‘made it’ and got funded/acquired/went public) won’t charge you $2.5 gazillion to teach you how to get results. Seriously, there are A LOT of surprisingly helpful people in this community; it’s humbling.

11. Ironically (and really surprisingly), a lot of the people that I’ve met since starting this are surprisingly successful in their careers. I’ve never worked with so many investment bankers and laywers as I have since entering this scene…and they’re all pretty decent people!

10. Even more surprisingly, I haven’t met that many developers/IT folks starting their own thing. I feel like a unicorn for some reason (even though I know I’m not).

9. It’s really easy to burn lots of cash on things that are free or cheap with a few more minutes of work.

8. Reddit is an amazing place for finding people/advice…but there is A LOT of crap to sift through.

7. If you ever had issues speaking in public or talking to strangers, you get good at it real quick.

6. My lifting program went to shit really quickly after work ramped up. (I was doing a modified 3-day push-pull-legs routine, my normal go-to during my cuts, but between meetings, work, and this, managing even two days of lifting is a challenge.)

5. I am glad that I’m doing this in NYC and not in Silicon Valley,

4. People are surprisingly very willing to help you out…if you don’t come off as spammy.

3. Everything is a juggling act when you’re doing this part-time. Do you spend the rest of the night banging out that new feature, or do you spend the night doing market research? Damn, the mockups need to be updated, should I do that instead?

2. Having a really understanding girlfriend/wife/partner helps a lot, even if they aren’t in the scene with you. I cannot imagine what it must be like trying to build something like this while in an unsupportive relationship.

1. I’m actually building something that might help other people. Waking up with that in mind feels really, really good.

STATUS: I’m close to having my first set of recurring events. It scans through my data really fast, though it can be faster still. Awesome.

MOOD: 💯

—————————

Firstly, thanks to all of you that are following my page! I hope you’re enjoying what I’m writing, and if you aren’t, feel free to email me about why it sucks!

Secondly,

Check out thinglistings.wordpress.com!

Serious face for emphasis. It’s essentially thinglistr’s twitter, but prettier and a little closer to what thinglistr will actually look like when I release it.

Thirdly, I realized this morning that the real challenge in doing this alone is that I’m essentially doing the job of four people, at once, on limited time! Right now, I’m a programmer, “growth hacker,” social media expert and marketing firm, all rolled up into one body.

It’s hard work that’s already come with its own ups and downs, but I’m thoroughly enjoying the learning experience. I’m doing things I would have never learned in any full-time job without switching careers entirely, and that’s pretty cool.

STATUS: I’m close to having my first set of recurring events. It scans through my data really fast, though it can be faster still. Awesome.

MOOD: 💯

—————————

Firstly, thanks to all of you that are following my page! I hope you’re enjoying what I’m writing, and if you aren’t, feel free to email me why it sucks!

Secondly,

The new blog is thinglistings! Serious face for emphasis. It’s essentially thinglistr’s twitter, but prettier and a little closer to what thinglistr will actually look like when I release it.

Thirdly, I realized this morning that the real challenge in doing this alone is that I’m essentially doing the job of four people, at once, on limited time! Right now, I’m a programmer, “growth hacker,” social media expert and marketing firm, all rolled up into one body.

It’s hard work that’s already come with its own ups and downs, but I’m thoroughly enjoying the learning experience. I’m doing things I would have never learned in any full-time job without switching careers entirely, and that’s pretty cool.